American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1 (August 2011)

Okay, here's a “Retro-Review” that's not all that “retro”... I've been reading through the American Vampire trades and singles in an attempt to catch up to the current issues, so I figured since I'm already reading through the third American Vampire hardcover, I might as well do a review from it. It's actually not from the American Vampire series itself, but a mini-series that sprung from the main series... Go figure.

American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #1(of 5):

Summary: First things first... This mini-series takes place during WWII... This issue kicks off by showing us who Felicia Book is and what she does... Who she is? The daughter of James Book, who was killed by American Vampire, Skinner Sweet. As for what Felicia does? She kills vampires for the Vassals of the Morning Star(the HUGE Castlevania mark in me LOVES the Morning Star reference fyi). Felicia was going to take a leave of absence from the Vassals after having killed dozens of vampires to track down wild rumors of somebody finding a cure for vampirism... Oh yeah, that's another thing you need to know about Felicia... When she was in her mother's womb, Skinner injected some of his blood into Felicia's mother's abdominal region, corrupting Felicia with some of the vampire taint. Felicia's boss at the Vassals tells her that he had a more promising lead on a vampirism cure, but that the scientist who had been working on it had fallen into the hands of the Nazis. As such, Felicia's boss asks her to go to German-occupied Romania to find the scientist with another Vassal agent by her side, a Cash McCogan. McCogan also wants to find a cure to vampirism due to the fact that his son was born a vampire... I'm blanking on how or why, but I'm sure Skinner Sweet was somehow to blame... This issue ends with Felicia and McCogan deciding to head into Nazi dominated Europe hoping to find the missing scientist and his potential cure.

Thoughts: Ah, this was a VERY promising start to this mini-series! The portrayals of the major characters here(Felicia Book and Cash McCogan) were VERY well done, as is par for the course when it comes to Scott Snyder. On top of that, the story itself looks really strong, although there's really no doubt in my mind as to how this one will end(you KNOW there's either no cure or the two will come tantalizingly close to getting the cure before something tragic occurs)... Still, I AM interested in seeing where this mini goes, and will probably happily polish the next four issues off by the end of the night.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Yep, that's gonna leave a mark...

JT's Take: Justice League #6

Hey everyone, JT here once again with another review that you won't get from my blogging counterpart. That's right, I'm back with a review for the latest issue of Justice League. After the last issue got an abysmal score due to Batman revealing his identity to Hal Jordan, hopefully things only improve from here. So let's see how they turn out...

Justice League #6

Summary: In this issue we see the remaining members of the unnamed hero team, Aquaman, The Flash, Cyborg, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern all rushing Darkseid while saving civilians. One of the saved civilians later goes on to write a book about the team where he christens them "The Justice League". Anyway, we also get a look at Apokalips, as Batman manages to help free Superman from Desaad and Steppenwolf. Cyborg uses his powers to open a boom tube for Superman and Batman to emerge from, and Superman takes on a weakened Darkseid, thanks to Wonder Woman and Aquaman, and pushes Darkseid into the Boom Tube, which Cyborg then disables. Somehow that sends Darkseid and ALL the Parademons away, even though that makes no sense, he also manages to short out all of their mother boxes so they won't return for a while. He's pretty adept with his powers for a guy that literally was a normal teenager playing football like two hours ago. The issue ends with the Superheroes being thanked by the president then called on to save the world again. Yawn.


Thoughts: I'm not going to lie, I gave this a very half-assed review, and as much as I want to blame it on being tired from work, the truth is this issue just sucked. I mean, there is no way this group should have been able to beat Darkseid at their current incarnation. They barely worked together, Cyborg was such a rookie he should've never been able to do half the things he did, we got a awesome glimpse of the old school Wonder Woman and they ruined it by giving her an epic page to herself and having her say "HA!" as she stabbed Darkseid in the eye. That irked me so much that I can't even explain it. Add that in with the fact Batman barely did a damn thing and you get a really crappy comic. The sad thing is Geoff is doing excellent on Green Lantern and Aquaman, but for some reason he sucks on this book. Maybe he can't write so many characters at once, because some people have like four lines at most in this issue. (Aquaman, I'm looking at you!) I'll have to see the next line up for this upcoming arc because I'm not sure I can keep spending money on this book, hell, I may have to adopt X's Brightest Day Rules for the next issue. If there was a plus here I guess the fact that Jim Lee is an amazing artist would be it.

Score: 3 out of 10.
Green Lantern: I don't wear a costume. This is my uniform.
Aquaman: And this is Atlantean Scale Mail. Do they think I'd choose orange?

Peter Parker: Spider-Man #31 (July 2001)

Hey everybody, it's X here with a new(old) review! Well, it's a new review of an old comic... In other words, it's a retro-review!! I have a few days here with no new books to review due to the small amount of new books I brought home this week, so I have to do something to fill this blog out... We'll see how many retro-reviews I can manage to pump out before my sleep-deprived mind shuts down...

Peter Parker: Spider-Man #31:

Summary: Some villain with a grudge against Spider-Man named Fusion managed to beat up on Spidey last issue and then blow up a building, killing 300 people. The next day Fusion demands to face Spidey again via a video to the media, leaving some cryptic hints, hints that tell Spidey who Fusion was and why he hated Spidey so... After some research, Spidey discovers that Fusion's 9 year old son died trying to emulate Spidey's web-swinging, so Spidey heads to the warehouse where the boy died, and sure enough finds Fusion waiting. It seems Fusion has just about every super-power under the sun(seriously!), AND can manage to fool Spidey's spider-sense. Spidey makes a gallant stand against Fusion, but is ultimately caught with a massive punch from Fusion which breaks Spidey's neck, ending this issue.

Thoughts: Huh, you know, I remember NOTHING about this comic! I mean I KNOW I read it because it's filed away in my comic collection and all, but I can't recall a thing about the way the story ends... Anyway, it's always kind of hard to have a lot of thoughts on a comic that's in the middle of a three part story... I didn't remember the events of PP:SM #30, nor do I remember the events of PP:SM#32, so I can only base my score on this one issue and not the storyline as a whole(which actually seems pretty good...). As a single issue, this comic wasn't that bad. It wasn't great, but it was a good, satisfying read. It was good enough to make me pull out the issues before and after this comic just to see how it ends, so you can't get much better than that I'd say!

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

What do you do? If you're me you curl into a ball and cry probably... I'd be a terrible hero...

Green Lantern: The New Guardians #6(Brightest Day Rules)

Ugh... Here's a comic that I've been actively avoiding for the past week and a half... With the small haul from the comic shop this week, I figured I might as well bite the bullet and give this comic a read... I'll be using Brightest Day Rules to score this one, so it could get ugly... REALLY ugly...

Green Lantern: New Guardians #6:

Summary: Invictus attacks the various groups of New Guardians beating them up until they are forced to regroup together. Invictus follows them(by traveling through the statues his followers built for him) and is incensed to see Glomulus... As am I, Invictus... As am I... The New Guardians attempt to take Invictus down, but he beats them all until only Saint Walker is left standing. Walker tries to use his ring to help fix/cure Invictus's mind, but is shocked to find there was nothing wrong with Invictus's way of thinking. With that, Invictus knocks Walker out. This one ends with Red Lantern Bleez trying to find Kyle for some reason.

Thoughts: You know... This wasn't a very bad comic... In all honesty, it doesn't deserve to be scored with Brightest Day Rules, but a promise is a promise, so onward we go. Right off the bat +5 for a good story, +5 for good art and +10 for no Larfleeze! So we're rolling right off the bat! -2 for Kyle somehow forcing his ring to contact the other New Guardians even though his ring initially claimed it couldn't do it. -5 for Glomulus being in this comic... Sorry, I hate that thing! -3 for the one time that Indigo Lantern said “Nok”... Seriously, why does he talk that gibberish garbage when he's not around other Indigo Lanterns?! Hell, another -1 just for making me ponder that! +3 for Invictus's bad-ass response to Fatality questioning what kind of angel he was. +2 for Arkillo calling Walker a “Blue worm”. -5 for Glomulus being part of the calvary here... See, I DO hate that thing! -3 for Saint Walker being the only Lantern left standing after the battle with Invictus... Really? Saint Walker?? +1 for the fact that Saint Walker didn't say “All will be well” in this issue. -3 because I could care less about Bleez and hate the idea that she's gonna rescue the rest of the New Guardians...

Score: 5 out of 10. Hey, check THAT out! This is one of those RARE occasions where a comic reviewed using Brightest Day Rules actually comes away with a positive score! That should tell you how great a writer Tony Bedard is(which I always knew from his REBELS work). If I wasn't using BDR's I'd have probably scored this comic at around a 7 or so, so yeah, this comic was WAY better than expected. So kudos to Bedard and the rest of the creative team on this series.


Yeah, I can definitely see myself becoming a fan of Invictus...

Weekly Comic News for March 3rd!

Hey Todd Squad, it's time again for another edition of Weekly Comic News. before we get started I wanna say Happy Birthday to my girlfriend and frequent commenter, Falisha, as her birthday is today! So, now that I've mentioned that, I'll jump into this week's comic news.

People love a War

This week's news includes the announcement that Avengers vs. X-Men #1 has more pre-orders than any Marvel title since the Civil War. This is pretty big news, as AVX looks to be a potential game changer that has a lot of people, comic fans and not, interested in the upcoming Team Warfare. Speaking of AVX, a variant cover shows that the resident Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool, is taking bets on the war with villains such as Red Skull, Loki and Apocalypse. Put me down for 200 bucks on the Avengers, Pool.

DC stands for Dual Covers

DC is going reprint crazy, as they've announced they are doing a fifth reprint for Action Comics #1, a sixth for Detective Comics #1, A fifth for Batman #1, a third for Batman: The Dark Knight, and a second for Batman: The Dark Knight #6, all on March 28th. I can't help but wonder who is buying up all these reprints or what warrants it, but that's not the first time DC has confused the hell out of me.

Ultimate Spider-Friends

On the upcoming Disney XD Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, we'll see Spidey get help from a few of his fellow heroes. So far we've see he'll be joined by Nova, White Tiger, Power Man, and now, Iron Fist. It was also confirmed that this Iron Fist will in fact be the current Iron Fist, Danny Rand. To read more and see some concept art of Iron Fist's cartoon counterpart, as well as Power Man's and Nova's, click here.

Earth 2 Concepts

 DC Comics chose this week to release concept art of the Trinity, as well as the former Robin and Supergirl of Earth 2, the current Huntress and Power Girl of the DCNU. You can click the name of each character to see the special Earth Two designs of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin and Supergirl.

Avengers Assemble Again!

Luckily we have something big to save this very slow news week, and that's the newest trailer for the Avengers movie, so sit back and enjoy this new, action packed trailer, for Avengers!



Amazing right? Well that's it for me guys, until next time, I'm your favorite blogger not named X-Man75, Jason Todd, signing off.

Avengers #23

Ugh, it's time for Avengers... Or as it's become, the Norman Osborn show... I don't know what Bendis's obsession with Osborn is(is it the hair?), but if you think back to some of Bendis's earliest Marvel work(Ultimate Spidey), Osborn is a huge part of it... It's really quite weird...

Avengers #23:

Summary: Madame Hydra, on the orders of Norman “God” Osborn, offers to hand Captain America over to the US government provided the US tried the Avengers as war criminals and allowed Osborn and HAMMER to replace SHIELD(because that worked out SO well the last time). Cap actually has to tell the president not to negotiate with terrorists, at which time the president orders the army to take in Madame Hydra. However, her Hydra agents turn into Hulks and tear into the army. Meanwhile, Quake frees Spider-Woman, Iron Man, Storm & Red Hulk from their HAMMER captivity... Called it... The heroes prepare to go after God Osborn, but instead, God Osborn(brimming with superpowers) and a slew of Hand ninjas surround the heroes, ending this one.

Thoughts: There's not much for me to say here. It went down exactly as I expected. Quake, the most inexperienced Avenger(yes, she has experience, but not Avengers experience), ended up saving the more senior members of the team... It doesn't get much more clichéd than that. Besides that, Osborn is still being portrayed as a flawless god. So yeah, the Avenger fan in me didn't enjoy this comic much at all. On the plus side, it wasn't as bad as the last issue, so there's that... I guess...

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.

*Gasp* I NEVER saw this coming!!!

Amazing Spider-Man #680

Last review of the night, Amazing Spider-Man... Yep, that's all I've got.

Amazing Spider-Man #680:

Summary: John Jameson is working on a space station when something bad happens. Peter Parker sees this and heads to the Baxter Building(as Spider-Man), hoping to use one of the FF's spaceships to find out what happened. Only the Human Torch is home, as the rest of the team are out doing stuff. Torch offers to fly Spidey to the station, and Spidey accepts. Upon reaching the station, the duo find themselves attacked by hundreds of Dr. Octopus's octobots. Jameson ends up saving the heroes, at which time he reveals that the entire station crew(with the exception of himself) had become... um, octobot-zombies. This issue ends with the possessed space station crew members preparing to attack Spidey, Torch and Jameson.

Thoughts: There we go, that was a nice, quick review! This was another comic that I didn't really have a problem with. The story was logical(Spidey's friend is in trouble in space. Spidey needs to get to space. The FF have spaceships... etc), while unspectacular. I mean this was a good read and all, but it wasn't something I'd go out of my way recommending...

Score: 7 out of 10.

And Spidey's supposed to be the genius?

Venom #13.4

It's spider night as I'll be reviewing Venom and Amazing Spider-Man... First up we have Venom. This is the penultimate issue of the Circle of Four storyline, as well as the issue we get regular series writer Rick Remender back after a three issue hiatus. Let's get in to it.

Venom #13.4:

Summary: The Spirit of Vengeance(the literal Spirit itself) goes flying around looking for a new host since Bad-Ass Ghost Rider had died last issue. Unfortunately for the Spirit, it gets captured by Blackheart's girlfriend, who brings it to Blackheart as a present. While Blackheart is trying to bond with the Spirit, he's also manipulating Daimon Hellstrom into not helping Dr. Strange hold Hell back any longer. Without Daimon's assistance, Strange and Daimon are both captured. Meanwhile, Venom, X-23, Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider and Red Hulk make a plan to swipe the Spirit from Blackheart and get it to re-bond with Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider(I think)... Instead, Venom winds up stealing the Spirit for himself(due to Blackheart's corrupting influence, and Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider tells Blackheart that the others were trying to reverse Blackheart's portal to Hell. This issue ends with Venom, now combined with the Spirit of Vengeance, preparing an assault on a surprised Blackheart.

Thoughts: This was a pretty strong issue. All of the characters here seemed to hate Bad-Ass Ex-Ghost Rider, much like myself, so that was fun to read. However, Venom's dialogue in this issue was really weird... Whenever the symbiote would take control of Flash, he'd/it'd speak like Bizarro from Superman... I don't know what that was all about, but it did bug me a bit. Besides that though, no real complaints from me, so we'll move on.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

HA!!!